06/08/12 IZOD looking to get out of their IndyCar contract? UPDATE This rumor is upgraded to 'strong' today. The IndyCar Series has "begun searching for a potential replacement for its title sponsor, Izod, three years before the sponsorship is set to end," according to Tripp Mickle in next week's SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. IndyCar execs have "approached current series sponsors and brands about becoming the presenting sponsor of the series in a deal that would make them title sponsor at an undetermined date." The companies already approached include Verizon and Firestone, two existing partners, and "one company outside its collection of sponsors with the proposal." IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard said that the series "still has a long-term deal with Izod that runs through at least 2015," and added that the sales effort is "designed to prepare the series for the future by helping IndyCar secure long-term sponsorships in the technology and tire categories and the funding it needs to expand the number of races it holds." IndyCarís search "follows an executive change at Izod parent company Phillips-Van Heusen Corp." Longtime President & COO Allen Sirkin, who supported the IndyCar deal, is retiring, and sources said that his replacement as COO, current PVH CFO and Exec VP/Finance Michael Shaffer, "has been less enthusiastic about the more than $60 million deal Izod signed in 2009." Sources said that Izod pays about $6M to IndyCar annually in rights fees and spends an additional $5M annually on media and activation. The company has a minimum of three years left on its deal, but Bernard "would not say whether Izod would fulfill that obligation" SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 6/11 issue

I don't even think Qingdao is going to happen. No one in Chicomland knows anything about it and nothing gets done there without the appropriate payments to the right people in the Chicom government. If it does somehow happen, I bet the track will be a debacle, the same way the DTM, Superleague, A1GP and others have been screwed over.

The word months ago was that Izod had pretty much been completely absent from anything to do with the indy racin league, so it's clear they are out the door. For what they spent, they should have been generating tens of millions in sales every year off the back of it and they didn't. Waste of money and time.

Then you have Texas which probably will not last to next year. Baltimore which if it happens, is going to pay a much reduced sanctioning fee in the low 6 figures to the irl, just to make sure it works financially so the irl doesn't have that egg on their face of that race cancelling as well.

Rodeo randy's last desperate attempt is to try to get even more street races for next year as few permanent tracks want the irl. Like I said, it's about time to change the name to STREETCAR with all these street races. It's funny to watch the indy 5 hunnert I luv tony george types apocalyptic with all of these street races. Couldn't happen to a better group of people.

Sanctioning fees are the cash flow and with much reduced fees or losing fees all together then it's more contraction of revenue.

The series has been circling the drain for a while. Smoke is already arising with the coup rumors on rodeo randy and I think at some point a complete and total panic will set in. The next thing to go will be a reduction in welfare payments to teams.

Even as of about ten o'clock this morning I would have been abhorrent at the thought of Texas returning. But in qualifying it seemed the cars actually took some degree of skill to drive. If the field gets strung out and the cars can slingshot the way they did at Indy, Texas might just be fit to return.

Justifying the kind of money IndyCar thinks it deserves for ticket prices let alone a title sponsor it will be hard to replace IZOD and please the replacement.

There aren't that many permanent tracks in China for its size. Also, most of them would be crap for racing Indy Cars on. I would honestly take Belle Isle over racing at Beijing Goldenport, Chengdu Goldenport, Tianma, Guangdong, and probably even Ordos. I don't know that Zhuhai meets the FIA requirements for higher-spec, open-wheel cars. Finally, Shanghai charges everyone else an arm and a leg to use the place, because they have to try (somehow) to recoup the F1 sanction fee.

Qingdao was occupied by the Germans, and then the Japanese, for a number of decades, so it's a more international and open city. That would be my guess as to why it was chosen.

Just thinking out loud here. It could be kind of funny to see if the present car can manage some real hot laps around Macau.

Realistically, the only point that might be an issue is the hairpin at Macau. Frankly, if you use your head, and turn through the corner earlier (get half your rotation done some way before you reach the end of the inside wall), the corner should be perfectly negotiable.

I wasn't paying 100% attention to the build-up but I think Bernard said he would make the decision this week!

He better bag some deal with Texas but he ain't gonna be Nixon and go to China without a Chinese driver or one of Chinese descent. China was a bizarre destination apparently made because 'there are lots of people there' without taking account of the interests of the demographic or the track record of other big series there. The boss at Qingdao probably thought it was F1 or something until an angry superior pointed out the difference.

Quite honestly, when Izod first arose as title sponsor I thought how long until they leave the boys in the lurch?

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